This morning we celebrate the Solemnity of the Most Holy Trinity, “the central mystery of Christian faith and life” (CCC, #234). What is it that we process and believe about the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit? We believe that the Son of God draws His life from the Father from all eternity; the Son is ever receiving that life and love from God and returns it eternally. From the love of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit is forever emanating. Before time began, or the earth or the world brought forth, God is this eternal exchange of love.
We could never come to know this great truth by reason alone. There is no way that we could discern the triune God and appreciate Him in our lives unless He were to reveal Himself to us. That is precisely what He has done in the Incarnation. When the Son of God became a man and took on our human nature, we could see this great love of God poured out for the Son. In fact, many did see Him. St. John the Evangelist writes beautifully in the New Testament:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
—1 John 1:1-2
When Christ was born of the Blessed Virgin Mary and took on our human nature we saw this Son of God who received life from the Father. The love of the Father beat within His heart as He walked our streets and preached the Good News to the poor. He healed the sick and raised the dead, and in His great love for us He went to the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. In that breathtaking moment on Calvary, the heart of Christ ceased to beat as He died for our sins. This act love was witnessed by those knew Him and by those who knew Him not.
Three days later, Christ rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples before ascending to the Father. Just last week we celebrated how Christ and the Father sent forth the Holy Spirit into the life of the Church at Pentecost. This morning, we listen once again to that breathtaking moment when Christ sends out the Apostles to bring that teaching to the ends of the earth. He says to them:
Go, therefore, and makes disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
—Matthew 28:19
This is our core identity as Christians and the very heart of the Christian life. We have received life from the Father, and we live as sons and daughters of God. We have this eternal life through the Son, and it is lived in Holy Spirit who dwells in us. There is nothing ordinary about that amazing gift!
Yet today there is a crisis in the heart of the Christian life in many places in the world. In Germany and in Belgium, and other parts of the world, there are entire groups of bishops that are confusing the Church’s teaching on family life or even teaching contrary to it. This is a tragedy because the Church’s teaching on the family is not an obscure teaching! We believe that the love of a man and a woman, physically and spiritually celebrated in the act of love that begets another human being is the very image on earth for the Holy Trinity! To teach something contrary to this amazing reality is a scandal and signifies a crisis in the Church at a fundamental level.
There is a crisis in the Church when so many of the faithful have come through the precarious global pandemic and are witnessing their churches opening up once again but are choosing not to come back to the Sacraments of the Church to give thanks. There is a crisis in the Church when Europe and so many other places in the world are becoming increasingly secular and there are so many people that do not know how much God loves them or that they can be forgiven for their sins. How is that possible when God died on the cross for the love of these souls?
It is not the worse crisis that the Church has faced, thanks be to God. There have been worse moments in the Church, sadly. In the 16th Century, right here in the City of Rome, it was worse. Historically, there was a great malaise among the faithful. Priests did not celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and many were ignorant of the great love God had for them.
In the heart of that crisis, God called St. Philip Neri to re-evangelize the city. He knew that God was calling him to this remarkable task and he was awed by it. In 1544, one the eve of Pentecost, he entered into the catacombs of San Sebastiano and prayed for an increase of the Holy Spirit. Nothing happened. He continued in prayer and after several hours the Holy Spirit appeared before him as a globe of fire. You can imagine that warm, bright glow in the darkness of that place. Suddenly the globe of fire entered in to the mouth of St. Philip and as it surged through his body his heart began to beat with great velocity. He would later recall that he feared death in that moment, not because of pain but because the love was so great that he could scarcely bear it. After his death, his body was exhumed and examined, revealing that Philip’s heart had become physically enlarged in that experience. In that supernatural moment he had broken two of his ribs, which were then closed back over in a wider arc to enclose his enlarged heart.
As we reflect on this great “Apostle of Rome” this morning, we pray not that God would break our ribs but that He would break open our hearts and allow us to live the Christian life more fully and more completely in these days of crisis. We need God, and He is calling us to a deeper relationship through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.
I conclude this morning with a story about a Marian shrine about an hour away from the City of Rome called Mentorella. St. John Paul II went there on is first visit outside the city when he was elected Pope and would frequently visit Mentorella during his papacy. Outside the Church, at the top of a steep staircase, there is a bell tower with a long rope hanging loosely from the bells above. There is a cautionary sign—or an invitation . . . depending upon how you interpret it—engraved on the outside of that bell tower that reads:
“Non far da campanaro
se il cuor tuo non batte da Cristiano”
(“Don’t be a bell ringer if your heart doesn't beat as a Christian”)
We need men and women whose hearts beat as Christians in the world today. We all need to allow the love of the Father to burn deeply in our hearts, to have that eternal flame burning in our hearts through the Son, and to let the Holy Spirit set us on fire for the Christian faith today. The world around us desperately needs us to live our Catholic faith in a way worthy of all that we have received. Friends in Christ, for the sake of the world around us, for the sake of the Christian life, and for the love of God:
Ring the bell.
